Monitoring of WatSan projects: application of information technology by local governments in Bangladesh

Union Parishads (UP) are the lowest tier of local government in Bangladesh. The territory is called ‘Union’ and there are 4451 Unions in Bangladesh. The average population of a Union is 25000 and average area is about 25 Sqkms. Union Parishads are elected councils to govern development activities of the Union. Almost all development projects in Bangladesh have root level partnership with UPs mainly for monitoring of projects, thus, reporting of progress is a regular tasks for UPs. With the increasing decentralisation process in Bangladesh, local governments are being empowered and they are given project implementation role. Hygiene Sanitation and Water Fund Project (HYSAWA) has given full project authority to UPs; the activities include planning, implementation, fund management, monitoring and reporting of community based WatSan projects. HYSAWA has introduced online reporting and monitoring system for UPs, which has drastically improved project monitoring and reporting. This paper describes the online reporting system of UPs including lessons learnt.